Information Technologies (IT) (i.e., Internet, high volume hard disks, and super high speed communication) have been continuously developed ever since the late of 20th century. Meanwhile, due to similarity between communication using an Internet cable and communication using a power line and also due to high similarity between a communication industry and a power industry, the IT industry and the power industry are being integrated. The integration of IT and power technologies has a synergy effect, and thus a smart grid is introduced as an intelligent power network which is reliable and highly effective.
In the smart grid, a function of a smart meter (i.e., an electronic power meter) that monitors power rate information on a real time basis is important. The smart meter can configure a wide range of customer energy management requirements such as various energy smart home appliances that can perform bidirectional radio communication and that use a thermometer, a real time-based communication information display, and a Zigbee technique. As such, the smart meter monitors a power consumption amount and power rate information on a real time basis with respect to a plurality of smart home appliances located in homes or offices, and provides the monitoring result to a head-end server of a power provider.
Meanwhile, in a demand side (i.e., homes or offices), the smart meter and the smart home appliances can communicate by using an application protocol called an energy profile for a Demand Response (DR). However, since various energy profiles exist for each function or each country, there are devices supporting the various energy profiles. In order to perform the DR between the smart devices, the smart devices need to support the same version of energy profiles.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and system for automatically provisioning an energy profile between devices in a Home Area Network (HAN).